[ 337 ] 
continues ; and that this volatile alcali Ts the bails of 
it, becaufe, as this was diililled over, the reiiduum, 
being ilill in intefline motion, got only the her- 
baceous fmell. The reafon, why the volatile alcali 
has been diilin(5lly obferved at a certain period of 
putrefa<fl;ion, and not in the others, is, I believe, this ; 
the volatile alcali has, it Teems, a tendency, 
to difmtangle itielf, by inteftine motion, of all fiich 
matter as it is involved with ; but if it is not combined 
with fuch fixed matter as retains it till it has gone 
through all its evolutions, it is, being itfelf volatile, 
carried off by the ftill more volatile phlogiftic matter 
with which it is commonly joined. For this reafon, 
I fuppofe, the putrefying matter fiiews in its begin- 
ning no fign of a volatile alcali ; becaufe its 
fmell depends only on thofe particles, which have 
been on the furface, without any ftrong cohe- 
fion with the fubftance. In the farther progrefs of 
putrefadlion,the matter involving the alcali, or form- 
ing it, is intermixed, and in cohefion with the 
folid particles of the fubffcance, and is by thefe 
means retained till the alcali is come to its purer 
flate. Towards the end of putrefatlion, the cohefion 
of the particles being almoft entirely taken off, the 
volatile alcali is carried off before it can go through 
all its ffates. 
If it is therefore true, that the volatile alcali is 
effential to, or at Jeafi: always prefent in put re fad ion, 
it feems to follow, that the alcalies never can be 
ufed in living bodies, as antifeptics [y'j, for laying 
[yj It is very difRcult, methinks, to account for the antifeptic 
power of the volatile alcali, and other falts, on dead animal fuh- 
VoL* LXI. X X alide 
